1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of customer service and, more particularly, to managing resources in a multi-channeled customer service environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Customer relationship management (CRM) allows the formation of individualized relationships with customers with the aim of improving customer satisfaction and maximizing profits. A corporation effectively utilizing CRM can identify the most profitable customers and provide them the highest level of service. Further, CRM can help a corporation streamline existing processes, adjust staffing requirements, and focus corporate goals and objectives in a customer-centric manner.
To accomplish these goals, CRM systems require a multitude of service resources that are capable of responding to customer service requests. The customer service requests can be received through a variety of communication channels. Communication channels can include, for example, a telephone channel, an electronic mail (email) channel, an Internet chat channel, a teleconferencing channel, an interactive Web channel, and the like.
CRM systems can utilize a centralized hub, called an intelligent router or service router, to route service requests to available service resources. The service router can automatically direct service requests to preferred service resources based upon predefined parameters and rules. The parameters and rules used by conventional service routers can include customer service representative (CSR) profiles and routing rules. Notably, a CSR is a service resource commonly utilized to respond to CRM service requests.
A CSR profile can be established for each CSR and can be used by the service router to determine the availability of each CSR for request handling purposes. CSR profiles can contain availability times for each CSR. For example, a CSR profile can specify an availability of Monday-Friday, 9 am-5 pm for a telephone channel and an availability of Saturday, 10 am-2 pm for an email channel. The channels each CSR is qualified to handle are generally determined subjectively by management personnel or through a skill test. For example, the skill test for the Internet chat channel can test a CSR's typing skills and familiarity with basic Internet chatting features. Conventional CSR profiles are manually updated on an annual basis to reflect changes in CSR qualifications and availability.
Routing rules can define current system states and provide request routing algorithms and/or heuristics based at least in part upon defined system states. For example, a current system state can indicate whether a CSR is currently signed onto the CRM system. If not, the routing rules can indicate that the CRM is not available for handling service request. The modification of routing rules generally requires an administrator to perform manual alterations. Routing rules are typically maintained within a data space separate from the CRS profile data space.